The ethical and social aspect of habitual confession to a priest

Paperback | February 1, 2012

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880. Excerpt: ... two theories, one or other of which is almost invariably held by the class of men we are alluding to. The first is that which has frequently been called attention to in the course of this Essay, under the name of the "Sacramental" theory of Confession. Confession is regarded by the great body of its defenders as a special medium of divine favour and grace, which only requires to be supplemented by priestly absolution in order to wipe off the effects of past sin. This miraculous efficacy is sometimes made dependent on the condition of the penitent, but it is always maintained that something more takes place than can be accounted for on simple ethical principles. Now it is natural enough that those who take this view of Confession should think lightly of the importance of political institutions. However useful they may be thought to be, it was never claimed for them that they had any superhuman power of effacing sin and realising a divine promise of forgiveness, and they are therefore on an entirely different footing from Confession, and cannot even be compared to it without something approaching to impiety. The attitude which the Tractarians took up with regard to the connection of Church and State was a natural consequence of that belief in "Apostolical Succession " and the "Power of the Keys" which was at the bottom of their zeal for Confession. In short, so far as we find men adhering to the "Sacramental" view of Confession, so far must we expect to find politics degraded to the level of a mere worldly occupation and robbed of all that gives it its highest value in the eyes of the moralist. The second of the two theories by which the defenders of Confession seem to be influenced in their opposition to political life, is one which deserves to be attentiv...